A ray of hope [OPEN]

[Cpl Lance]

It had been to days since Lance had any contact with UNSC. With all communication cut off and no way to get back, Lance had lost hope. being the only marine wherever he was didn't help either. "I might as well get used to being here" he said to himself as he set up a camp. Lance stared at the fire as he sat down to clean his weapons "It would be a stroke of luck if I could find a carrier, then I could boost the frequency from the comms array to get a signal." He thought to himself.

But just as Lance was going to give up on the whole situation, his luck would change as something came hurling out of the sky a mile away from him. It was the answer to his prayers as he saw one of the carriers crash into the ground thirty feet away from him "I don't believe it." Lance couldn't believe his eyes. He didn't know how but it was the thing he had been searching for, a carrier. Lance quickly put the fire out and headed towards the crash site to secure it before anyone else could get there.

[Rebecca Addie Victoria]

It had taken about a month since she arrived in this strange universe. Though, she had spent most of it on a world called "hollow bastion" waiting for a ship to be built that could actually travel between the worlds. Thankfully they were able to build it so it looked and handled like the pelican she had crash landed there. While out to try and search another world for her mom or anyone else from "Amber Dawn", the spartan had stumbled on another pelican drifting close to a world. She had managed to scan it quickly, finding it empty of any personal, living or otherwise. She was somewhat thankful seeing as it was in rough shape. Though, as it drifted towards the world for an inevitable crash, she checked the contents of the pelican against what she had done before the incident, seeing as it was at least from her ship. It was one of the models they had just rolled out of the assembly line just in time for 2573. They still had the magnetic locks for holding cargo outboard, but these ones were a bit larger so you could drive a wart hog in to it and still fit a dozen or so soldiers seats. Or if it was sitting about 8 Spartans. Their armor took up a lot of room, but on the bright side, her person team could fit in and actually have supplies for any mission they were sent on for a change.

Though at the moment, her team, as well as the rest of the crew and personal that had been on "Amber Dawn" during well.. whatever the hell it was had happened in slipspace, was MIA. She refused to believe out of all the people on that ship she was the only survivor. And the fact this pelican was drifting here meant that they were probably scattered over a vast number of worlds, though as she saw the list of what was on the pelican, this would be a good place to start. It had a warthog outfitted with the latest generation gauss turret, ammo, and food, most of all, it had ammo. Sure the spartan had the polearm she took off the brute, but sometimes she preferred to actually keep her distance. She was going to stockpile as much usable ammunition as she could since finding rounds for assault rifles was a pain, she had found a plae where she could get ammo at least made for her pistols and any number of single fire rifles, but nothing that could make the proper size and all for an assault rifle. Then again, she was also trying to avoid giving some of these worlds technology that was so far advanced of their own. The one place she knew she could get ammo had pistols, and just started using semi automatic type weapons. They were about as advanced as earth had been in the late 1930's.

She made after the pelican as it descended, landing a few feet away from the crash site. Thankfully the lady that made this ship for her had put in something that had some info on the worlds that were known. Apparently this one was called midnight hollow because it was always midnight here. Considering she was in the middle of nowhere, and the world was eternally dark, she figured she could keep the wear armor on. She didn't want to totally rely on her ability to see in the dark with her eyes alone. There was some freaky stuff and abilities people had on these worlds. It almost made the covenant look normal some days.

She stepped out and examined the crash site, in the end, the pelican had landed upright, but had rolled several times, leaving its debris everywhere. There might have been some salvageable parts for the one back in hollow bastion. She went to the cargo door and hit the keys for it to release, but it was jammed shut from the crash. "Alright, plan B" she muttered to herself, forcing her fingers in between the door and the frame, starting to slowly force it open with her and the suits raw strength. Though, she had it half open when she heard frosts voice over the suits internal communications. "I just got a strange FoF ping, it's actually registered" the Ai's voice said in the helmet, Rebbeca peering into the pelican and flipping the helmets lights on. It was a mess in there, but no bodies or anything. "Is it from the pelican, we checked before and I see it's empty". she replied, a pause before the Ai replied again. "No, it's about half a mile away now headed for the ship, the strange thing is it's something like 20 years out of date". Rebecca understood now why it was strange, "You mean someone from the human-covenant war?" The war had ended when she was about 6 or so, or well, the brunt of it. There were some fanatical covenant causing problems still, and a bunch of pissed off survivors from glassed planets that felt the UNSC had abandoned them. They had gotten out of the fire, but jumped right back into the frying pan. That was part of why after she let her mom test it all on her the military had approved the Spartan four program.

"Put it on the HUD" she told the AI, the green arrow popping up with all the identifying markers, at least all the ones the old FoF's could give. "That can't be right, that unit was supposed to have been wiped out". she said, The AI immediately saying "Yes, that's right, but apparently we found a survivor, maybe they ended up here in this universe during the action some how". Rebecca grabbed a flair and a flair gun, opening a channel that the trooper should have been able to hear her as struck the top of the first flare and tossed it to illuminate the crash site a bit better. "To the ODST that's approaching the crash site, please identify yourself". she said, not about to trust a FoF that made no sense. Their had been issues of it before that had ended badly, covenant faking them or terrorists and guerrillas doing it as well. Not to mention reports from when they found "Spirit of fire" of the flood being able to mimic them. The full night optics were still a bit glitchy from the crash a month ago, just like a lot of things she would have to fix over time as she got the pieces to do so, so she shot the flair gun up in the air in the general direction to try and see him. Far as she could tell, it was actually an ODST. Hopefully if this was one of the ones from twenty years ago, they weren't one of the ones that had an issue with Spartans.

[Cpl Lance]

As Lance reached the crash site, he received a message on the comms coming from the what looked like a pelican, He also saw the flair as well which could've probably meant they were the soldiers were in trouble "My sensors indicate that there are survivors at the ship, however I can not tell if they are allies" Superintendent said. they could've either been covenant soldiers or rogue marines, for all he knew it could've been the flood faking an FoF. He pulled out his SMG and double timed it to the crash site "To all surviving soldiers, this ODST Cpl Lance, I'm on my way to the site". Whatever it was he would have to take a chance on this one, but he would also have to tread lightly.

As he reached the crash site he saw only one person, she donned armor similar to a spartan, but he still wasn't going to take any chances. He quickly got into prone position, took out his sniper rifle, and lit off a flair to let the person know he reached the site. Not taking any chances he had his rifle aimed it at the soldier. If she didn't respond to the flair, he had a problem and she was a rogue soldier. "Lets hope she responds super" he said. "Agreed" super said.

[Rebecca Addie Victoria]

Teh zoom kicked in on her faceplate, magnifying the image as an alarm sounded to indicate a weapon was focused on her. "Frost" she said, since the AI was undoubtedly three steps ahead on figuring out. "Look right three degrees, I don't think the FoF is wrong, the rifles an old model sniper rifle from the war, they haven't been used by current enlisted troops in almost a decade. Impact from the round will short the shields, but the armor itself will hold up to the round, I don't recommend being in the path of the second shot though, not if he's a good shot and can hit the face plate". She looked over and zoomed into see him clearer. "And the flair?" she asked, the AI responding "Old protocol for identifying unknown soldiers when FoF is offline or not functioning:. "Great, so the corporal can't tell if I'm a hostle or not, that's just great". she said, putting the assault rifle behind her, letting go once the magnets on the back took hold.

""I'm moving to your position corporal, don't get twitchy with that rifle of yours". she said, slowly making her way the few feet between the two, keeping the blue faceplate polarized. She stopped 50 feet short of him, her head tilting slightly as she noticed the gauntlet flair to life with light before frost's holographic form appeared from it. "Frost" she said, the helmets outside speakers turned on so the AI could hear her. "I'd like to see what he looks like through something other than a barely functioning HUD". the AI replied as it looked up towards the face plate. It was always sort of weird for Rebecca to look at non Spartans, since even without armor they towered over most soldiers or civilians, even more so in it. And with this soldier lying prone, he seemed even smaller. She took her helmet off, shaking her head so her hair wasn't as matted down, her eyes closed so the padding didn't irritate them as she removed the helmet. She opened them up, her dark blue eyes scanning the area as they adjusted, able to see the ODST clear as day at this range, especially with the flair. "Wow, I haven't seen an ODST in that kind of armor since I was a little girl". Rebecca commented, having been a kid during the end of the human-covenant war. It hadn't changed too much, but still different enough. "I'm lieutenant Victoria, spartan designation Delta 4-1" she said, letting the helmet hang off a loop at her waist. "The pelican that crashed only had supplies, no passengers from a ship I was on before something happened in slipspace, how long have you been here?" she asked, perplexed as to how two people from two periods of time could be in the same place. then again, that slipspace anomally could have done any number of things.

[Cpl Lance]

"Super, run a scan on her armor to see if she's really a spartan, I've never seen armor like that" Lance whispered into his helmet making sure she didn't hear him "Scanning" superintendent said. He didn't care if she was giving off a friendly FoF or not, he wasn't taking any chances with any anyone he couldn't recognize as an ally. "Scanning output at fifty percent." Super said as the AI tried to link up with her armor. "what's taking so long Super" Lance whispered. " Scanning output at 100%. My sensors indicate that she is indeed a spartan. One of which is not of our time period." Super said."but how can that be possible." He asked. "It is possible that the slip-space rupture we were sucked into caused a rift in the time continuum." Lance thought to himself that if that was possible, then that would mean she could've been from a period. One that wasn't conflicted with the Human-Covenant war.

He didn't believe what he was hearing, there was no way it could even be physically possible. But if she was a spartan, he was in no position to argue. After all she was his commanding officer. But before he could say anything, those heartless things showed up again. They must've heard the crash, because they swarmed but they seemed to be in fewer numbers this time. One had had crawled up behind the spartan and tried to get the jump on her "Don't move." was all he said to the spartan as he shifted his sights just to the left of the spartan's shoulder while still keeping an eye on her to see if she would attack or not.

[Rebecca Addie Victoria]

Rebecca waited for a response, but the first one was from Frost as she shuddered. "Shouldn't you buy a girl dinner first?" she said allowed, talking to the AI tried to link up with hers, her counter intrusion software slowing it's progress. Though, the fact it was based on civilian systems used to run a city, she couldn't fully stop it yet. "Just let him see what he needs to see". Rebecca said, the AI looking at her as if she had been told to do something humiliating. "Fine". she said reluctantly, letting the other AI get what he needed and nothing more. Forget all the things that were classified top secret or better, she didn't need to be the cause for a drastic change in history if they ever got back.

"There happy?" Frost said, clearly annoyed at the intrusion. That was the funny thing about smart AI's, they got really funny about certain things. "You sound just like my mother..." Rebecca said, rolling her eyes. "Of course I do, I was made from a flash clone of her brain." The AI replied, turning to look up at her. "Don't remind me." she said, waiting to see if the ODST was satisfied with the information. Though, the first thing she was able to actually here was "Don't move" and the gun shifting, though it was clearly off her as she felt something present behind her. She ducked down and spun off to the left out of his line of fire, then noticing the beady little yellow eyes. The one that had jumped up behind her missed, and seemed puzzled that she had reacted so fast. Her hand shot down to her side, grabbing the suppresed pistol and emptying the clip, each round hitting it's target with next to no noise, then grabbing the second pistol, and emptying it as well, though since it wasn't supressed, it was far louder. When she had built this gun, she hadn't cared that it was a bit louder than a standard issue M6, she made sure if she shot something with it it stayed down. a total of 20 shots between both guns, and 20 pairs of yellow eyes vanished.

She looked around and either they were taken out, or the ones that weren't ran off. She ejected the empty magazines and put a fresh clip in each, picking the empty ones up and storing them so she could reload them later. She may not have used a sniper rifle, but of the spartan 4's, she was the best shot, with or without her helmet. She put the pistols back to where they were held in place at her sides by the magnets, turning back to the ODST. "I guess those things are the heartless I've been hearing about". She said, her voice calm as if nothing had happened. Though truthfully, part of her wanted to study one. she figured she picked that up from years as a small child and being brought to the lab by her mom since she had no one else to care for her when she went to work. Besides, she had been helpful unlike most kids. course, seeing as she figured her mom was alive, she must have been having a blast. A whole other universe to explore, she must have been as giddy as when she found out they agreed to let Rebecca show off so they'd approve the full spartan 4 program. She went to move her arms to cross her chest, but found that her right arm wouldn't move. "I told you not to over do it till the armor was fully repaired" Frosts image said sternly, looking down as he concentrated on diagnostics. "Well even in the field it'll be an easy fix, problem is you'll have to take the armor off to do it". Rebecca looked at the figure for a moment and thought, "I still have one that works, thats good enough". she replied, The AI objecting to that notion. "I'm not about to strip in the middle of a field." she said, frost giving an exasperated sigh before vanishing.